7.32 Per Cent: The Mortgage Rate a New Executive Order Leaves Exactly Where It Found It
Donald Trump signed an order on Thursday to cut mortgage insurance, title insurance and closing costs for some borrowers. The 30-year rate is 7.32 per cent, up from 6.19 per cent a year ago, and nothing in the order touches the reason.
7.32 per cent. That is Freddie Mac's average 30-year fixed mortgage rate for the week to 22 October, down from 7.40 per cent the week before, the highest in about three years, and up from 6.19 per cent a year earlier. The same day, President Trump signed an executive order titled Decreasing Housing Costs for the American People, twelve days before the midterm elections.
The order directs the Federal Housing Finance Agency to have Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pilot proactive cancellation of mortgage insurance once a borrower's equity passes the threshold on an automated valuation, but only on mortgages written after the pilot exists. It makes permanent a title insurance waiver for eligible refinancings, tells the Agriculture and Veterans Affairs departments to cut rates on their direct loans, and sets up a 180-day task force on factory-built housing. The fact sheet also recalls a January instruction for the two agencies to buy $200 billion of mortgage-backed securities. The order sets no start date, no new rates and no savings estimate.
Directing enterprises still in conservatorship to expand their balance sheets to lower rates is fiscal policy by another name, with the taxpayer as backstop.
From the newsEach measure is sensible and small, worth perhaps a few hundred dollars a year to eligible borrowers. The gap between 6.19 and 7.32 per cent on a $400,000 loan is about $300 a month, and that gap is set by the 10-year Treasury yield, which touched 5.3 per cent this month on a 3.7 per cent inflation print, a $2 trillion deficit and oil above $110.
We think the order is honest about what the executive can do about housing costs without Congress or the Fed, which is very little, and that the mortgage bond purchases are the part to watch. Directing enterprises still in conservatorship to expand their balance sheets to lower rates is fiscal policy by another name, with the taxpayer as backstop. The Fed meets on Wednesday. Freddie Mac's next rate print is on Thursday.
The Semaform
President Trump signed an executive order on 22 October directing federal housing agencies to reduce mortgage insurance, title insurance and closing costs and to expand factory-built housing, as the average 30-year mortgage rate stood at 7.32 per cent.
The measures are sensible and small; the rate is set by Treasury yields, inflation and the deficit, and the one lever the order does reach for, government-sponsored purchases of mortgage bonds, is fiscal policy with the taxpayer as backstop.
The White House says the order removes regulatory barriers and will eliminate a large monthly expense for qualifying borrowers; housing economists say closing-cost reforms are welcome but will not move affordability while rates are above 7 per cent.
Sources
- The White House, Executive Order: Decreasing Housing Costs for the American People, 22 October 2026
- The White House, Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Decreases Housing Costs for Americans, 22 October 2026
- Freddie Mac, Primary Mortgage Market Survey, week of 22 October 2026
- Reuters, Trump signs order aimed at reducing single-family housing costs, 22 October 2026
- Politico, Trump signs housing affordability executive order, 22 October 2026
- American Action Forum, Lowering Housing Costs, Expanding Federal Risk?, 23 October 2026
- HousingWire, Trump signs executive order targeting mortgage costs, 23 October 2026
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